Surprise! Independent Party has official status, killing Wilson-Foley petition drive

Lisa Wilson-Foley celebrates with State Rep Whit Bett (Bristol/Plymouth) as she gets votes during the third round of voting during the 5th District congressional republican vote. (New Haven Register Photo/Peter Casolino)

The Independent Party has minor party status in the 5th Congressional District, where Wilson-Foley, along with Andrew Roraback, Mark Greenberg and Justin Bernier, are vying for the Republican nomination, but the leader of the party didn’t know it.

Wilson-Foley hoped, according to campaign spokesperson Chris Syrek, to be on two ballot lines in November if she wins the August primary, but those signatures, should she have collected them, would have been meaningless.

“If she collects signatures and turns them in, they’re not going to do anything,” according to Av Harris, Secretary of the State’s office spokesman. “The signatures are only there to get her on the ballot,” he said, and there’s only one way to get on the ballot: Get endorsed by the party, and the party holds its convention in August, after the Republican primary.

The Independent Party has had minor party status in the 5th Congressional District since 2008, when Thomas Winn received barely enough votes to qualify the party. To do that, the party-endorsed candidate needs to obtain just 1 percent of the total vote, and Winn managed that, with a 56-vote margin.

So when, in 2010, Republican Sam Caligiuri appeared on the November ballot twice, as a Republican and as an Independent, he did not have to petition to get on the ballot. He merely had to be endorsed by the party.

Harris would not speculate as to why Wilson-Foley would file the paperwork to be a petitioner when she didn’t have to.

“I’m not sure why she filed an association with the Independent Party when that party already had minor party status,” he said.

The reason, apparently, is a miscommunication. Dr. Robert Fand, spokesman and deputy treasurer for the party, and a member and advocate of the Independent Party since 1986, misinformed the campaign.

“They don’t have to petition. I made a mistake. I was thinking about the 4th,” Fand said. “I’m going to have to call her and tell her.”

Wilson-Foley should run as an independent she would do well and mot likely win, why go through a primary. She runs as an independent she will get dem votes and republican votes and independent votes.
Foley is a winner as a true independent.